Enemy of my Enemy
by valeyard
Summary: Plz RR. “No need to punish the technicians, Papa. This was my own doing. I want to feel the pain. I will drink in this pain, and pour it out double on the last surviving Saiya-jin.”
1. Enemy of my Enemy 1

Vegeta drug his burden a few more feet, momentarily giving into pain and exhaustion. He trembled with the fear he would lose consciousness before reaching his goal. He looked up, surveying the fiery horizon of Namek. Furiza was as good as his word. Namek-sei could not have more than five minutes left. Vegeta looked down with disdain at his unconscious enemy.

'This is all your fault, Kakarotto!' Vegeta's face contorted into a snarl. 'You and your honest ways! If it wasn't for me, we'd both be dead now.'

Vegeta grimaced with the pain he knew, Goku's weight put on his injured body. It galled him beyond measure. He that had destroyed whole planets with the single whim of his finger, could barely drag one half-dead body. He gritted his teeth with the strain, as he heaved Goku's body across the Namekian terrain, watching his own blood drip onto Goku's face.

He must make it, Vegeta told himself. He had to make it. He was their only chance--both of them. If he passed out now . . .

Vegeta shook his head, his face written in determination. He fought against the panic as the landscape kept going in and out of focus. He would not lose, not now! He could not lose. He hated it. He was a killer, a monster. He fought for himself, and only himself. Now, he had to be the hero. It disgusted Vegeta, but he could not conceal the truth from himself. All now depended on him. 

'Just a few more feet.' 

Vegeta listened to his own labored breathing. He stopped for a moment, as he struggled to drag air inside his lungs. This always happened when he got away from space. He cursed all planets. So used to the pure air of pressured space ships, he found breathing the natural air of a planet, with its dust, its pollen, and debris to be uncomfortable in the best of conditions. Now, with his dying strength, he felt every breathe might be his last.

There it was, Furiza's ship! Vegeta felt panic close in on him, as he drug Goku closer. The ship was badly damaged. 

'Damn!' Vegeta cursed himself. 'Why did I have to be so thorough? I could have killed all of Furiza's men without damaging the ship. How could I have been so stupid?'

A huge arc of fire exploded in front of Vegeta, before he had time to react, scorching his face. Instinctively, he threw himself upon the most precious burden in his universe, shielding Goku with his own injured body. The ground caved underneath them, and they both fell. 

"No!" Vegeta screamed in frustration. "Not this close! I won't die." 

He clenched his free fist drawing all the power he had left to him, rising unsteadily, carrying Goku with him. Painfully, he flew over the planetary gulf that stood between them and Furiza's ship, which was now their only salvation.

The cold sweat of fear beaded on Vegeta's forehead. Straining beyond hope, he struggled to keep them both airborne--and both alive. Just as he thought he would make it over the new gulf, an explosion erupted from deep inside the planet, sending them both flying. Vegeta felt Goku slip from his grasp. Screaming out in pain, he rode the force of the explosion grabbing Goku in midair, riding the down shaft as they tumbled into the entrance to Furiza's ship. 

Vegeta slammed his hand on the button that closed the outer pressure doors, unceremoniously dumping Goku on the floor of the ship. With all the speed he could muster, he ran for the control room.

Vegeta burst through the doors before they had the chance to open. The sight that met him caused him to curse in every language he knew, and he knew quite many. The control boards were smashed and looked inoperable. Wires hung from open bays, dangling from many broken control boards. 

He ran to the first control panel, feverishly reading the screens, hoping he could trust what they told him. 

"Alpha command, voice control, hecta giga zoros!" Vegeta yelled, recalling every command he had heard on the ship that had been his home as a child.

It was too good to believe when he heard a mechanical voice respond, "hecta, giga, zoros." 

This was followed by a beep that told Vegeta, it was still open to commands.

'Thank the Kings of Vegeta, it hasn't been locked out!" Vegeta thought fiercely as he racked his brain for every word of Cold-jin he could remember. 

"Dida ronda para." Vegeta said as calmly possible. 

The computer only beeped, and repeated, "hecta, giga, zoros."

Vegeta gave into his panic. It wasn't functioning. They were doomed.

He swayed but persisted. "Golo, jorda voika!" 

The computer only beeped, and repeated, "hecta, giga, zoros."

As the computer said that, the whole ground underneath the ship heaved. Vegeta saw through the huge windows of the command room. A pit of lava had opened up before them and the ship was sinking into it.

Vegeta screeched the last in open fear. "Launch you stupid bitch, or we'll be boiled alive! Launch!"

With that he, he heard the engines fire. Vegeta screamed in triumph. Since, when did they turn the controls over to the common tongue? He momentarily shook his head in disgust. It figures they wouldn't tell him!

Only in time did he remember the huge whole he had blown earlier in the hull. "Isolate, sections gonda ra, through vonda be!" 

The computer beeped its obedience, as Vegeta saw the welcome stars of what had been his only home since he was very small--space. 

The computer beeped again. "Gatta?"

Vegeta looked up at the computer confused for a moment, before he looked at the scanners and sighed heavily.

"Anywhere." Replied Vegeta. "Take us anywhere. Just make sure it is as far from Cold-sei and as far away from Earth as possible."

The computer beeped, again in compliance. Vegeta turned away from it, in complete dismissal walking out. Adrenaline was beginning to seep away, with the returning pain held at bay for too long. Raw burning wounds covered his body. They screamed with the agony of the battle that should have killed him. If he hadn't learned how to suppress his ki, making Furiza think he was already dead, that is exactly what he would be.

Vegeta for the first time, since that lost battle, took time to survey his own injuries. He noticed in shock his under tunic was drenched in blood. He wasn't sure how much of the blood was his and how much Goku's. Remembering the badly injured Goku, he quickened his steps ignoring the agony screaming from every muscle in his body. 

He found Goku where he left him. He gave into his worst fears, when he found him. Goku's complexion was deathly white.

"Don't you die on me, you bastard!" Vegeta said aloud as he picked him up to drag him to the medical ward. "It's your fault we are in this mess. All you had to do was kill him."

Vegeta berated Goku between hefts of his weight down the long hall. "But you couldn't do that could you? No! You couldn't kill the SOB, could you? You're the good guy. You had to show him mercy." 

"You stupid bastard!"

Vegeta's fury got the better of him as he kicked Goku as hard as he could in the ribs. Goku convulsed, coughing up blood. As instantly as he finished coughing, he made a sighing sound and stopped breathing. 

"I'm an idiot!" He screamed at himself, slapping Goku hard on the face.

Goku suddenly heaved, taking in a quick breath, followed by very shallow breathing. 

"There's no time!" Vegeta screamed at himself, as he pulled Goku inside the medical ward. 

He ran over to open the first medical machine, returning to drag Goku toward it. He heaved Goku into an upright position, attempting to push Goku into the machine. Goku's eyes opened suddenly and he started thrashing. 

"Gohan!" Goku screamed weakly, fighting Vegeta, scratching him on the face. 

Vegeta shook with fury. "You idiot, I'm trying to save your life!" 

He punched Goku hard in the face, as Goku's helpless body crashed into the medical machine. Goku attempted to climb out. Before he had the chance, Vegeta grasped his arms pinning it in a restraint.

"Relax, Kakarotto." Vegeta said sarcastically. "You get to live, not that you deserve to. The Cold-jin are experts on how to make people live whether they like it or not." 

Vegeta grasped the other arm, putting it into the opposite restraint, grasping the breathing apparatus, snapping it over Goku's face.

Vegeta closed the machine with smug satisfaction, looking on his prisoner, as the machine filled with the solution that would heal his injuries. 

Vegeta was surprised when Goku's eyes opened inside the medical machine. Those in the machine should go immediately asleep, sedated by the solution, inside. Determination was written on Goku's face. Vegeta could barely make it out, but he could hear him struggling to speak through the apparatus that sealed his mouth. 

"Why?" Goku looked honestly surprised at his captor. "Why did you save me?"

Vegeta huffed. "What a stupid question for you to ask? Why do you think?"

Why!" Goku screamed through his muffled prison. 

"It wasn't for any love of you; trust me when I say that, Kakarotto. I swore revenge on you, on Earth, and that has not changed. But, we are all that's left, Kakarotto. We are the only two Sayai-jin left that can destroy Furiza. It's obvious that fighting him alone is useless. We need each other."

Vegeta turned to leave. "Whether we like it or not." 

"My Son!" Goku screamed. "What do you mean, we are all that's left? Where is my son?"

Vegeta grimaced. Beyond his best attempts to hate all that breathed, a grudging respect had grown for the small warrior that had fought so bravely, again him and Furiza. Yet, he tempered that respect with bitterness. Gohan's bravery had won him nothing. Another lesson for Vegeta, in the futility of good. 

Vegeta didn't know why he couldn't bring his eyes up to look at Goku. He lowered his head saying the words mechanically. "Gohan's been taken captive by Furiza."

Vegeta hurriedly left the medical room, doing his best to shut out the sound that filled his ears in Goku's one agonized howl of despair-filled rage.


	2. Enemy of my Enemy 2

Gohan did his best not to cry in front of his captors. That was not easy task. He was badly beaten, disoriented, and surrounded by a dozen life forms, the likes of which he had never seen in his very short life. The faces that had surrounded him before were those that sought to protect him. Now the faces surrounding him had only one thing in common--the dark looks of cold, hardened cruelty. It was another lesson for Gohan in how much he had been sheltered.

'Oh, Piccolo-san." Gohan lamented miserably in his mind. "If only you could have survived. I know I would not be here, now.'

The sounds of his captor's marching feet thudded in Gohan's small chest. His anger grew with the sound of every marching step. It stoked the bitter fuel of his grief. It amplified in the muscles Gohan barely kept under leash. It ached in the eyes that refused to shed tears. 

Gohan ticked off in his mind the names of the dead. He punctuated each name with the vision of their faces as they died; Vegeta, whose last act before his fatal fight with Furiza was to save his life; Piccolo and Kurrinin, who had stood around him like loving family, dying before his very eyes; His father, who died screaming out his name.

'They all died, because of me.' Gohan's mind blackened in thoughts of growing hatred.

Then, a new thought occurred to Gohan and his new hatred. 'I am the last Saiya-jin.' 

Gohan straightened his shoulders, walking between his captors as if they were his honor guard. Refusing to show any weakness, Gohan forced his bruised legs to walk. That determination hardened in his eyes. It gleamed cold and fierce, making him look like his Saiya-jin grandfather. He was the last Saiya-jin, in what he was quickly learning to be a very cold universe. 

Yet, the thought of being the last Saiya-jin didn't make Gohan afraid. He felt a responsibility fall on his shoulders. A responsibility handed down by a people he had never known, aside from Vegeta and his father. It was a strange responsibility, which filled him with a stranger pride. A pride, which made him feel kinship with someone he never imagined possible--with Vegeta. 

Gohan had hated Vegeta's arrogant, cold demeanor. It was only now, in the hands of the same captors that had made up Vegeta's life, Gohan understood. When facing the worst there are only two alternatives--crumble and die, or face it head-on with fearless Saiya-jin pride. A tear finally forced its way to Gohan's unyielding eye. He never felt prouder. He was the last to stand for his people, and that meant something--if to know one else, but himself.

'I will stand for the Saiya-jin, for the Earth, and for my father.' Gohan told himself with the fiercest pride he could muster in the deepest part of his secret heart.

He would not let them see him afraid. He would face them all with unflinching Saiya-jin pride. That resolution set in his fearless features along with the knowledge he was walking into an audience, he had no hope of surviving.

Goku awoke to the rhythmic beeping from outside his healing chamber. His eyes opened, blinking in the murky waters. Looking around his dark, murky prison, he sought some means of escape. As he tried to move, he remembered the constraints still holding his hands to the sides of the chamber. All of the events leading to his imprisonment came back to him as he considered the restraints. He grimaced angrily at the constraints, hating what they represented. Vegeta's words came back to him. 

"The Cold-jin are experts on how to make people live, whether they like it or not." 

He thought of all the beings that might have been held in those restraints. Healed against their will, knowing it was only so they would suffer all the more, later. It caused great anger to flare in his heart. His anger melted away in surprise. At the slightest pull, his bonds broke away like melting wax.

Goku surveyed the inside of his dim prison for any means of escape. Finally losing patience, he simply kicked the door open with a shout. He watched solution slosh all over the floor as a satisfactory sign of his renewed health. 

"Vegeta?" 

Goku looked around hesitatingly for Vegeta, not sure if he could trust his motives. Vegeta had saved his life this was true, but Goku was sure it was not for his benefit. Goku shook his head momentarily thinking about Vegeta. Vegeta tried to exterminate everyone on Earth, yet saved his son's life twice, and saved his life last of all. Goku wondered how to trust someone like that. There was no way to predict what Vegeta would do next! Goku wondered if even Vegeta knew. There seemed to be no constant in Vegeta's life besides anger and his need for revenge.

Carefully peering out of the medical machine, Goku half expected a blindsided attack, from his unpredictable savior. To his relief, all that met his eyes was the empty medical room. He listened to the soothing sounds of the medical machinery for any sound of movement. If Vegeta were sheltering behind any of the machines, planning an attack, Goku would be ready. No sounds met his ears but machinery.

'Where has Vegeta gone?' 

Goku walked warily out of the healing chamber, looking about him. He craned his neck, giving it a little stretch, amazed at how strong he felt. As he finally exited the chamber, he found the answer to his question on the floor.

Vegeta lay crumpled, half in and out of the healing chamber next to Goku. It appeared to Goku, Vegeta tried to put himself in a medical machine, dying before he could make it inside.

Goku looked at Vegeta somberly, not sure how he should feel about him. He had good reason to hate Vegeta, yet also reasons to admire him. Vegeta had betrayed him and left him to fight Ginyu alone. Yet, Vegeta also saved his son's life twice, and fought against Furiza giving him time to heal. On top of that he saved his life, when Vegeta could have left him on the planet.

"You might have made it into this medical machine if you hadn't saved me." Goku said somberly. "Instead, you took the time to save me, and it looks like died before you could save yourself."

"For whatever your reasons," Goku said shaking his head, "somehow, you did manage to do good. I'm sorry you died."

Goku gingerly reached down to brush dried blood away from Vegeta's still, white face. Goku did a quick inhale as Vegeta flinched at Goku's touch, making a small moan of pain.

"You're alive!" Goku cried amazed.

Grappling Vegeta, Goku looked for a way to get him into the medical machine. As Goku hefted him up, Vegeta's eyes popped open. He thrashed in Goku's arms, looking around wildly in disorientated fear. 

"Paybacks are hell!" Goku yelled, drawing back to deliver Vegeta what he had given him.

As Goku looked at Vegeta, clawing weakly in childlike fear, his own anger dissipated, and he gently placed him in the medical machine.

"Ah hell!" Goku said in partial disgust. "You did save my life. I owe you at least that."

He sat Vegeta upright as best as possible in the machine and looked around for the breathing apparatus. Finding it, he gently slid it over Vegeta's almost unconscious face. 

"I know what you said about getting cold-hearted." Goku sighed as he closed the machine. "You are probably right. If I hadn't given Furiza the chance at mercy, I wouldn't have lost the power of the Super Saiya-jin, Cold Daiou wouldn't have arrived in time, and he wouldn't have defeated me."

"Just like I should be cold hearted now and hit you as hard as you hit me." Goku shook his head as he spoke. 

"What can I say, Vegeta?" He said walking away. "I know you would expect it, and probably give me a word or two about not doing so."

Goku turned to look back at the medical machine that held Vegeta, giving a disheartened sigh as he did. "I'm sorry, Vegeta, but I'm just not like you." 

Goku walked over to the console, looking helplessly for some indication of how to turn it on. He was unpleasantly confronted with another difference he had with Vegeta. He had no idea how to turn on the machine. He looked in confusion at the console. It had buttons of many colors and symbols. Small screens beeped and ticked off hopelessly unreadable symbols. The whole thing made Goku's head swim. He never liked technical stuff, especially in hospital looking places. It reminded him of cold pills and sharp needles. 

"Which one?" Goku said in exasperation.

He raked his eyes over the console again, bewilderment written all over his face. Finally, he reached out to what he thought the most likely button. 

"I hope this is the right one!" Goku said, half covering his eyes as he reached out to push a button.

His hand wavered with hesitation. Before he could press it, he heard a dull thudding from inside the medical machine. Goku looked up in amazement. Vegeta was faintly but frantically banging at the glass. Goku ran over looking in confusion as to how to reopen the machine. Vegeta weakly shook his head in aggravation, pointing to the console.

Goku ran over to the console. It was turned away from Vegeta's view. Goku waved at Vegeta to communicate he didn't know how to make the buttons visible to him. Vegeta made deliberate sweeping motions, first pointing to the console then turning his hand clockwise. To Goku's surprise, the console was hinged just as Vegeta's motions conveyed and swung easily. Goku turned it toward the window of Vegeta's medical machine, looking at Vegeta for some indication of what to do next.

Goku pointed at the red button that had his attention moments before. He looked at Vegeta for confirmation. Vegeta weakly shook his head. Goku looked at the buttons again, observing one with a yellow half-circle on it. He pointed at that one, looking at Vegeta. Vegeta looked like he was losing hope of staying conscious. He shook his head no, but as he did, his head dropped down to his chest. Goku ran over, banging the glass, franticly trying to keep Vegeta conscious. Vegeta head popped up suddenly, as if he too understood the urgency to stay awake. Goku ran back over to the console and pointed to the next button, which had two semicircles facing each other, one red, the other green. Vegeta nodded his head as he sunk down in the machine. Relief was written on Vegeta's face as he slowly closed his eyes.

Goku pressed the button with a small feeling of triumph. The machine filled with fluid and the console on the machine, starting ticking off symbols Goku had no hope of reading. He could only assume it was some kind of timer for how long it would take for Vegeta's injuries to heal.

"It's a good thing, Furiza had these medical machines." Goku said as if the unconscious Vegeta could hear. "Without senzu beans, otherwise we'd be in an awful fix."

Goku looked around, taking the time to appreciate his alien surroundings. He shivered not with any feeling in the air, but in the coldness of his surroundings. The room glittered brightly in sanitary perfection and utilitarian function. Nothing around him conveyed beauty or comfort. 

He flinched in horror when he observed a table nearby. It brandished an assortment of noxious looking pills and very sharp hypodermic needles. This sight made Goku quickly decide Vegeta didn't need him watching over his healing. Goku made as fast an exit as possible, to find other parts of the ship.

He walked out of the medical ward, confronted with a very long, circular hall, with no visible end. Goku noticed mournfully, the bodies of all the men Vegeta killed were removed since the last time he was in the hall. He momentarily wondered who had removed the bodies. He doubted it was Vegeta. Having watched Vegeta nonchalantly walk right over the bodies of his own slain, he doubted Vegeta would have taken the trouble.

With another heavy sigh, Goku dismissed the matter from his mind. He told himself sadly, there were matters far more important than the slain. He had to concentrate on the living, if the few left living were to remain that way. 

The most pressing matter at the moment, as his stomach kept reminding him, was food. He opened door after door, down that hated hall looking for something that reminded him of a kitchen. After fifteen minutes of fruitless searching, frustration clearly crept across Goku's face. Room after room, forcing open bays and turning out storage shelves produced nothing. He finally screamed out the frustration of his failed search. It echoed inside the dead, unheeding ship, ringing in his ears, and shivering up his own spine. 

His own animal sense of danger pricked the hairs at his neck. He knew he was losing it, but that conscious knowledge didn't help him gain control. Everyone and everything around him was dead! He felt buried alive, his voice wailing to the echoes of an empty sepulcher. He was alive in a tomb, with no mourners, no remembrances, and no shadows of love or friendship. No one could hear his screams as he floated silently through space, in a forgotten metal monument, gleaming dull against the cold stars of an empty universe. His own despair fed into that irrational fear, screaming out in the empty ship.

"No!" Goku screamed. "I am not going to fall to pieces now! Gohan is alive. I have to believe he is still alive and I have to stay whole for him!"

Goku turned his fear into anger, screaming at himself. "Now damn you! Get yourself together!"

Goku looked at his hands as some extension of himself he could visibly scold. "You get yourself together, do you hear me?"

Goku felt his breathing steady as his voice became calm under his own reassuring words. "You are going to live and you are going to find Gohan!"

Now the calm that had pulled him back from the brink turned to anger again, but this time at Vegeta.

"You grew up on this butt ugly ship?" Goku said aloud as if Vegeta could hear. "What the hell did you people eat? You had to have eaten something! Where the hell is it?"

He grunted in exasperation, deciding he would simply have to wait until Vegeta emerged from his medical machine to reveal where the food was located. He walked back towards the medical infirmary, thoroughly feeling his defeat, yet relief he felt back in control. Another fifteen minutes of even more fruitless searching, brought him to the realization of another defeat--he was hopelessly lost. 

"Aw, just beautiful!" Goku said to himself in disgust, realizing control was an illusion. "All the doors look the same!"

He sank down on the floor of that hellishly endless hall, feeling completely destroyed. He shivered in the cold. His clothes were dripping with the solution contained in the medical machine. He fingered the wet fabric of his torn and bloody gi in distaste. He was sure he looked just as bad as he felt. 

He wondered dismally if things could possibly get worse, and realized he didn't want the answer. All he knew at the moment, was he was cold, hungry, and miserable with the utter failure of losing all that was important to him. 

Goku thought over the last few hours of his life, wondering how things could have become so bad. He looked back the way he came, feeling his anger burn hotter, yelling as if Vegeta could still hear. 

"This is your fault, you bastard! Somehow, it is!" 

Goku shook with momentary fury. He had a wife, a son, and a beautiful little house. He had the best friends a man could want. He had a life that was as close to perfection as humanly possible.

Thinking this, he brought his hands down, punching the floor in fury.

"But I'm not human!" He screamed, watching the metal give and take with each punch.

"Maybe, that's why I lost it." He felt tears burn in his eyes as he cried out his pain to the dead ship. "I had all a human could want, but I was never human. I only thought I was. I am a monster that was sent to kill all the humans!"

"It's not fair!" He roared, hearing his cries echo down that lonely hall. "I didn't ask to be a born a monster!"

Goku's head fell down to his chest. Hot tears trickled down his face.

His voice dropped to a defeated whisper. "I didn't ask to be a monster."

Goku brought his fists up to his eyes watching them clench and unclench with frustrated grief. 

"You and your damn desire to be immortal. VEGETA!" Goku screamed, fighting back the tears. "If Raditzu had never came. If you had never came, I would have never learned who I truly was, and I would have never become involved in your problems, or Furiza!"

"But you did come, and told me about the Super Saiya-jin." Goku look at his hands as if truly appreciating for the first time, how alien he really was. "And it was all true. All of it was true. I'm not human!"

He closed his eyes, resting his head on his chest, remembering how happy he was when he believed he was human. "And when I learned that. That I was not human, I lost everything that made me happy."

He dearly wished he could have believed he was human for the rest of his life. Then he would have never lost his friends to Vegeta, never came to Namek and would have never came to the attention of Furiza.

Goku opened his arms, looking at how powerful they appeared. They seemed such strong arms. As he looked at his arms, he shook with the memory of his lost fight. They were arms that should have beaten anyone in the universe! Why had he lost against Furiza?

He ticked over every second of that fight. He had tried every method he knew against Furiza--kiao-ken, kamehameha, and finally genki-dama. Everything failed. 

Then Furiza killed his best friend in the world, Kurrinin. Not even the dragon balls would bring him back. The fury it created in him! Goku tried to remember exactly how it felt--every second of the burning rage that exploded in him. He found it hard. He totally lost control of himself when it happened. It was an incandescent blur of rage and might. He was so frightened of what he would do, he even ordered his own son to leave, fearing what might happen to Gohan if he got in the way. 

'That was another mistake!' He screamed in his mind. 'Sending Gohan away. He was all alone! I should have told him to stay with me!'

Yet, somehow, Goku lost it all. First, the power of the Super Saiya-jin, then losing to Furiza, finally learning Gohan had fallen into Furiza's hands. Goku clenched his fists in remembrance of each failure. The fight was almost over, when he let that power slip from him. He told Furiza he was leaving and went to do so. He wasn't sure what happened after that. He felt a bolt of such intensity he doubted it came from Furiza. 

It was just as he fell into unconscious, he saw the person who had hit him and heard these words, "Bastard monkey! Did you think you could defeat the Cold-jin or I Cold Daiou? You will pay for attacking my clan!"

After that, everything went black.

Goku still wondered why he was alive and how Vegeta managed to get him away. His anger softened against Vegeta. With the memory of Vegeta's rescue he suddenly felt guilty. After all, he wouldn't be alive if it weren't for Vegeta. Goku turned his anger toward himself, again. While he sat in that hall feeling sorry for himself, his son was probably dead at the cold hands of Furiza. With that thought, he reached a muscled arm up to the wall, braced himself against it, pushing himself to his feet.

'It's no good feeling sorry for myself." He thought to himself. 'I have to move. I have to live.'

He looked at his muscled arms again. 'I'm going to live. No matter what it takes, I'm going to live and get back my son!'

"I won't return to Earth without Gohan, Chi Chi." Goku said to very air. "I know you can't hear me, but I swear this to you now. If I don't have Gohan alive and in my arms when I return to Earth, then I won't return, ever!"

Goku slowly walked down that cold hall with new determination in his step. No more would he feel sorry for himself, or wander lost. Whatever the obstacle, alien alphabets or alien foes, he would over come it. He swore to do whatever had to be done.

Goku cursed himself for not studying the symbols on the door before leaving the medical ward. It didn't matter, he told himself. He would find the medical ward again, somehow.

It seemed a very long time of opening door after door, before he finally heard the familiar clicks and ticks of the medical machines in the infirmary. He walked inside with a sense of relief. It was the first small triumph in this new phase of his life.

Goku looked at the console of Vegeta's medical machine. It methodically ticked off symbols Goku still couldn't hope to read. He didn't know why he bothered trying to read the symbols, but he hoped it meant everything was going well. When studying the console brought him no closer to learning how long Vegeta would take to heal, he decided maybe looking in on Vegeta would give him a clue.

Goku was shocked looking in on Vegeta. Goku didn't know a time when Vegeta wasn't grimacing or screwing up his face in some cruel, twisted smirk. Vegeta's face, what he could see of it behind the breathing apparatus, was slack and relaxed. It surprised Goku how different he looked asleep. The murky waters in the machine seemed to glow slightly around Vegeta's body, illuminating his face in a spectral light. His hair, ever standing on end, waved to and fro in the fluid. The fluid bubbled through his hair, glittering to whatever healing effects were held in its dark promise. His face, not etched with his usual cares, angers, or fears, looked ghostly yet angelic in a childlike way that truly shocked Goku. Goku found it hard to believe he was looking at the same heartless murderer that had tried to kill everyone he loved.

Goku walked over to the console puzzling over it, again. He gave up in defeat. He simply couldn't read the dials or parse out any sign of when Vegeta would be ready to emerge. Goku sat down beside the machine, sighing in bewildered frustration.

His momentary determination cooled with the sad memory of Vegeta's words. "We need each other, whether we like it or not."

Goku realized with a small sense of defeat, that he couldn't overcome every obstacle--at least not alone. It was true! He did need Vegeta, whether he liked it or not. With a downcast sigh, he sunk down on the floor, giving into the exhaustion of the situation. 

"Cold-sama." 

The alien that bowed low before Korudo Daiou, (or Cold Daiou as he was known in the common language), was visibly sweating in fear. The unpleasant glare Cold Daiou gave him did nothing to set him at ease.

"What is it?" Cold Daiou said in a voice as unpleasant and as deadly as his stare.

The alien sweated more profusely, shrinking under Cold Daiou's stare. "Before Namek-sei exploded we monitored one heat signature. It appeared to be Furiza-sama's ship."

"How is that possible?" Cold Daiou roared at the visage of the steadily shrinking alien. "Furiza is in the infirmary badly injured and the traitor Vegeta killed all the crew aboard Furiza's ship. No is left that could fly that ship!"

"I have no answers, Cold-sama." The alien answered crossing his arm over his chest, bowing his head to the ground in shame. "But we did monitor two life signs on the ship before we lost sight of it."

"Are you telling me?" Cold Daiou sputtered in rage, raising a pointed finger at the underling. "The Saiya-jin!"

The crew in the control room looked up in open fear as they heard a piercing scream from the corridor and Cold Daiou entering the room, walking away from a small cloud that had borne Cold Daiou the bad news.

"I want that ship tracked and its trajectory found!" Cold Daiou raised a huge muscled arm, shaking it at his minions pleased with the fear it inspired. "No one rests day or night until it is found!

Cold Daiou marched out in full fury. It was bad enough his son was in the infirmary, barely half of what he used to be. Cold Daiou clenched his fists. Furiza's body could be repaired--legs replaced; eyes imitated and rewired. However, the damage to his pride would be irreparable. Cold Daiou grimaced. His son was unstable already. It was only his superior power to Furiza that kept him, Cold Daiou, safe. Otherwise, he would have probably suffered the same fate as many of Furiza's allies. Furiza seemed to take great pleasure in gaining an ally's trust only to betray and exterminate them later.

Knowing that he had suffered so much from such an inferior species as the Saiya-jin and had failed to exterminate them, would send Furiza into an insane rage. Cold Daiou twisted his face in disgust. What could he do? His kind only had one child their entire lifetime. Furiza was his only son. The only son he would ever have! His only chance of a legacy was invested entirely in Furiza. He didn't build an empire such as the Cold Empire to let it slip into nothing. Furiza was indiscriminately homicidal, but an effective conqueror. He would rule his empire after him, even if Furiza killed half his subjects in the process.

Cold Daiou opened the door to the infirmary, watching medical specialists immediately snap to attention then bow low. Cold Daiou walked indifferently over to the medical table, crossing his arms as he observed them returning to their work over Furiza. 

"How goes the work?" He asked the medical technicians coldly.

To Cold Daiou's amazement Furiza opened his eyes. "The work progresses slowly, Papa."

"Furiza!" Cold Daiou practically sputtered in exasperation. "Why haven't you allowed the technicians to put you out of your pain? There's no need for you to suffer!"

The technicians backed away nervously cringing before both Cold Daiou and the injured Furiza.

Furiza smiled cruelly, clenching a fist, dripping with blood to emphasize his pain. "No need to punish the technicians, Papa. This was my own doing. I want to feel the pain. I will drink in this pain, and pour it out double on the last surviving Saiya-jin."

Furiza opened his hand slowly watching the blood drip away from his hand. "I will enjoy watching his life's blood drip from him as I extend my pleasure."

Furiza clenched the fist watching blood spurt onto the nearest technician. The frightened technical couldn't help letting out a stifled squeak.

"And his pain!" Furiza looked up at Cold Daiou, deadly meaning in his eyes.

"Yes, well I wanted to talk to you about that." Cold Daiou grimaced, knowing the news would not sit well.

"He didn't get away? That little brat of the Saiya-jin that caused me this pain!" Furiza gritted his teeth, arcs of lightening ran up his damaged body. "Whomever, let him get away will suffer all the pain I intended for him!"

"No, No!" Cold Daiou uncrossed his arms putting a hand on Furiza's still intact shoulder. "The little brat didn't get away. It's about the misconception he is the last Saiya-jin."

Furiza's eyes opened wide, and Cold Daiou noted with disdain, the glint of fear in them. "You don't mean!"

Cold Daiou sighed turning away, not wanting to face his son's wrath over this bad news. "It would seem your ship was tracked getting away from the planet just before it exploded. Two life forms were detected inside."

A strangled sound of fury erupted from behind Furiza's teeth. Before Cold Daiou could turn around, he heard one of the technicians scream, and saw the technician's body fly into the far wall. Cold Daiou turned around, looking disapprovingly at his son. 

"Furiza! How do you expect to be repaired if you go around killing our technicians? At least wait until AFTER they repair you!"

The technicians backed away from Furiza and Cold Daiou, shaking with helpless terror.

"No one told you to go anywhere!" Cold Daiou roared. "Get back to work."

They practically stampeded back to Furiza's side, feverishly working over his body.

Furiza forced words out between more strangled sounds of fury. "Son Goku, that Saiya-jin monkey that Super Saiya-jin that did this to me; and Vegeta that betrayed me are still alive?"

Furiza's eyes went red with hysteria, more blood erupting from his clenched fist. "I want them dead! Do you hear me! I want them both dead! I don't care how far we go, or how long we have to follow them, I want their dead, mutilated bodies laid before my feet!"

Cold Daiou sighed. "And you expect me to put the conquest of a galaxy on hold for your personal vendetta? So, shall we just kill the brat, now?"

Furiza's fury died on his lips as a very cold light flickered in his eye. "No."

Furiza smiled cruelly, looking at his father. "No. Now, that his father is still alive, the boy will be far more use to us alive than dead. And, afterwards I can always have the pleasure of killing him slowly before his father eyes."

"Furiza." Cold Daiou broke into a cruel smile. "You always find a certain poetic justice in all you do."

"Besides, Papa." Furiza smiled back playfully. "We need a replacement for Vegeta do we not?"

"True." Cold Daiou smiled wider. "I always preferred the young ones. When they get older they bore me."

"Yes." Furiza momentarily looked resentful. "Yes, I recall when you tired of me and set your attentions on Vegeta."

"Furiza!" Cold Daiou chided. "You aren't jealous are you? Why I tired of Vegeta years ago. I said I preferred the young ones."

Furiza smiled cruelly again. "But your 'tender treatment' of the young ones, always seems to have the desired effect. It makes them such heartless, but effective killers. Won't it be delicious to have Son Goku find out his Son has become just like Vegeta? Imagine the pain it would cause him."

"I find that most promising." Cold Daiou smiled, baring very long and very white teeth. "Very well, I will take the boy under my wing. He sounds like a very promising pupil."

"Pupil!" Furiza laughed. "That's an interesting way to put it."

Cold Daiou turned serious. "I'm not a fool, Furiza. I know you are bribing me with the boy. He's payment for interrupting the total conquest of the universe in exchange for chasing two totally insignificant beings across the universe."

"They are a threat to us, Papa." Furiza extended a hand to display his injuries. "As you can see."

"Perhaps." Cold Daiou replied slowly, as if still turning the matter over in his mind. 

"Very well!" Cold Daiou said with finality, turning to walk away "I will exceed to your demands."

Cold Daiou looked back momentarily with a wicked smile. "But, I will take the boy, also." 

Furiza laughed in a flirtatious way. "Papa! I can always count on you to see the practical side of any issue."

They both laughed cruelly.

"Now get me healed immediately!" Furiza barked at the technicians. "Or the boy won't be the only one who suffers around here!"

A technician went to put the fiery end of a laser to Furiza's body. Furiza grabbed the tool from the technician's hand. The technician backed away in open terror, numbly waiting for whatever wrath Furiza would deal out to him.

"And this time," Furiza said calmly. "You have permission to put me under. I am in a hurry and the work will go faster that way."

The technician fainted dead away to Furiza's amusement, as you could hear his laughter echo down the hall of Cold Daiou's ship.


End file.
